


paradise

by icetowns



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, cheleanor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-24 08:22:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21096377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icetowns/pseuds/icetowns
Summary: Chidi just can't figure out why his life in the Good Place has been miserable. Then he sees Eleanor, and he realizes why.





	paradise

**Author's Note:**

> ahhhhhhh i haven't posted in so long bc i started feeling insecure about my work again but i think it's about time i finally do!!!! hope you like it!!! <3

Chidi sighed as he tried to read the table of contents of one of his many philosophy books. He simply couldn’t focus enough to do it though.

He couldn’t stop the worries from rushing through his head; if this is paradise, why can’t he fall in love with his soulmate? Is he ruining her time in the Good Place?

Perhaps sitting outside of the frozen yogurt shop wasn’t his brightest idea. The other residents were so distracting, it wasn’t helping his brain become less cluttered at all. All that was running through his mind were thoughts of Simone and the burden he must've been on her. He felt as though he  _ had  _ to love her… what else would a soulmate be for? Did the universe make a mistake?

Chidi dismissed this idea immediately. The universe makes no mistakes, however, humans do. Chidi  _ knew  _ he was at blame, but he couldn’t quite figure out what was going on.

Then, as if out of nowhere, Chidi heard Eleanor’s voice. She was walking past, talking to Tahani.

_ Read, read, read.  _ He practically begged himself to focus on anything besides his surroundings. 

Anything besides Eleanor. In fact, mostly Eleanor.

No, he had to admit it to himself. Only Eleanor.

_ Oh fork. _

The realization hit him like a truck. How could he be  _ that  _ oblivious to his own emotions?

Chidi started to feel a stomach ache coming on.

“Chidi!” he heard Eleanor come up behind him. She must’ve stopped talking to Tahani, and he must not have noticed because he was too busy scrambling to distract himself from her.

_ Fork, fork, fork. _

“Eleanor!” Chidi smiled at her, nervous, but pulling through so far. 

“How’ve you been?” She asked him.

Chidi took way too long to process that. He was busy staring at her eyes. Everything about her was stunning to him; however, she  _ was _ an angel. What did he expect? He finally shook himself out of his trance, and then managed to reply.

“Um, I’m okay. I think.”

“You think?” Eleanor raised an eyebrow.

He had to stop. He knew Eleanor had to be perceptive, he had to talk to her about it before she found out on her own.

“Well, have you ever felt like something just wasn’t right?” Chidi asked, making Eleanor chuckle.

“Plenty of times, man,” she replied.

“That’s how I feel right now,” Chidi said, hesitating slightly as he went on to continue, “and I know what’s wrong, I just don’t know if it’s okay. I think it’s my fault.”

“I’m sure it isn’t,” Eleanor smiled back at him, “what do you think it is?”

“Does the universe make mistakes?” Chidi asked, half stalling, half actually curious of the answer.

He noticed Eleanor pause for a second, almost as if his question had thrown her off.

“Not that I know of.”

“Then it’s my fault.”

“Oh, Chidi, come on, it’s not,” she laughed, “you’re just overthinking again, bud. Again, I know this mood… from your file.”

“It’s just…” Chidi’s stomach ache intensified, making him groan, “you told me Simone is my soulmate.”

“Yeah,” Eleanor replied in a monotonous voice, “what about that?”

“I think I’m falling for someone else,” Chidi admitted. He noticed Eleanor shift slightly in her seat. Clearly, that statement took her aback.

“You’re… in love with someone?”

“I don’t know if it’s love or—”

“Who?” Eleanor asked sternly, “no, no, that doesn’t matter. The universe usually doesn’t make mistakes.”

All Chidi wanted to do at that point was back out. Eleanor seemed angry, and he didn’t know how to deal with it. 

“You know what, Eleanor, if it’s any better I can talk to Michael about this,” Chidi suggest to get away from her, “I think it’ll be better to not bother you with something  _ this  _ trivial.”

“Michael’s not here, he went on a… business trip,” Eleanor said, “It’s not trivial either. I want to hear about these things.”

Chidi couldn’t help but pick up on how strange she was acting… but he pushed it aside. That was not the main issue.

“Okay, if you really want to know, I’ve been trying hard to love Simone,” Chidi explained, “but I just can’t. And there’s this other girl I can’t stop thinking about now. I didn’t realize it until… just now. She’s gorgeous, though. Her personality is too. I just don’t know if I’m allowed to be with her.”

Eleanor looked down at the ground and sighed. “Chidi. Please just do whatever your heart says you need to do. If you need to be with this girl to make your Good Place truly good, do it. Simone will survive. Chances are, if she’s not your soulmate, you’re not hers.”

“You’re right,” Chidi groans, “Sorry, I have a terrible stomach ache.”

“What’s wrong?” Eleanor asks him, “nervous?”

“See Eleanor, here’s the problem,” Chidi added.

Eleanor nodded.

“You’re the other girl.”

Chidi watched Eleanor, but he didn’t get much out of it. She seemed stunned. He immediately wished he could take it all back.

“I don’t even know if I’m allowed to fall in love with you, you’re like a god, or an angel,” Chidi stumbled to try and clear up what he felt needed to be cleared up, “I’m not saying I’m in  _ love  _ with you either, I just feel like it might get to that point, but there’s no pressure on you to date me because—”

“Chidi.”

“No, wait, let me finish, I’m sorry I did this, I need to at least try with Simone, I know that—”

Eleanor reached across the table, grabbing onto Chidi’s hand.

“We were in love,” Eleanor told him in an attempt to calm him.

“We… what?”

“We met in a fake Good Place, a lot like this one,” she explained, trying to ignore the confusion on his face, “I knew I didn’t belong as soon as I got there, and you helped me. Michael says that was like three hundred years ago, and during those three hundred years, he kept rebooting us, and we kept falling in love over and over again.”

“But wait, I can’t remember,” Chidi said as he tried to get whatever grasp of that concept as he could. Eleanor just smiled and rolled her eyes.

“You were rebooted, you can’t remember anything,” Eleanor laughed under her breath slightly, “if we could, that would be awesome.”

“So, what do you know about all of this?” Chidi asked.

“I just know what’s Michael’s told me and what he’s shown me,” Eleanor explained, “oh, and also the most recent time we fell in love. That wasn’t long ago.”

“About a year or so ago in Earth time—”

“Wait,” Chidi was confused again, “Earth time?”

“I don’t have time for Jeremy Bearimy right now, Chidi, just hold on,” if Eleanor had been able to wipe the smile off her face, anyone would have thought she was mad at Chidi, “anyway, I met you on Earth because I wanted to be a better person. So I flew from Arizona to Australia just to find you. I pushed you into Simone’s arms by accident, but that didn’t matter much because as soon as Michael told us everything about the afterlife, you dumped her. Anything you’ve been wanting to say so far?”

“Yeah, of course,” then Chidi asked, “you’re not an angel?”

“Nope, completely human.”

“That’s so hard for me to process, you’re just…”

“I’m what?” Eleanor smirked, and Chidi rolled his eyes.

“Gorgeous.”

Eleanor smiled, intertwining her fingers in his. She stared at their hands.

“This is the first time since you were rebooted that I’ve felt this happy,” Eleanor smiled, and Chidi took notice of how close she was coming to crying, “it’s been like a month and I really wasn’t getting used to it.”

“So you’ve been in love with me this entire time,” Chidi smiled at her, “that makes sense.”

“Flattering yourself much there?” Eleanor chuckled.

“No, no, just the way you’ve been acting.”

“Yeah man, I was messing with you,” Eleanor replied, “I know I haven’t been the least obvious person ever about it.” She got up from the table, smiling back at him. “Come with me, I’ll tell you everything.”

Chidi couldn’t stop smiling. This all finally wasn’t misery.

Eleanor was what he needed the whole time to finally be in paradise.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you all enjoyed!!! quick shoutout to the hellstroppies gc ily all sm. we'll get our cheleanor bread soon enough <3


End file.
